Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles)
The Ambassador Hotel was a hotel in Los Angeles, California. Designed by architect Myron Hunt, the Ambassador Hotel formally opened to the public on January 1, 1921.[2] Later renovations by architect Paul Williams were made to the hotel in the late 1940s. It was also home to the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, a premier Los Angeles night spot for decades; host to six Oscar ceremonies and to every United States President from Herbert Hoover to Richard Nixon.[3]
For other uses, see Ambassador Hotel (disambiguation).Ambassador Hotel
3400 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
United States
January 1, 1921
1989
2005–2006
$5 million[1]
Schine family
Ambassador Hotel Corporation (1921)
Schine Family
Myron Hunt (1921)
Paul Williams (1949)
1,000
Prominent figures such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Nat King Cole, Lena Horne, Barbra Streisand, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Yma Sumac, Ray Charles, and The Supremes were some of the many entertainers who attended and performed at the Cocoanut Grove.
The hotel was the site of the assassination of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968. Due to the decline of the hotel and the surrounding area, the Ambassador Hotel was closed to guests in 1989. In 2001, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) purchased the property with the intent of constructing three new schools within the area. After subsequent litigations to preserve the hotel as a historic site, a settlement allowed the Ambassador Hotel to be demolished in 2005, completed by early 2006.
Preservation efforts[edit]
From 2004 and 2005, the Ambassador Hotel became the topic of a legal struggle between the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which planned to clear the site and construct a school on the property, and the Los Angeles Conservancy and the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, who wanted the hotel and its various elements preserved and integrated into the future school.
The Location Managers Guild organized an event together with the Jefferson High School Academy of Film and Television in March 2005, entitled Last Looks: The Ambassador Hotel. They mentored students in script breakdown and location scouting, using the hotel as a potential location to be scouted, documenting the property one last time. The images taken by both the students and the professionals were then exhibited side by side at Los Angeles City Hall.[17]
After much litigation, a settlement was attained at the end of August 2005, allowing the demolition to begin in exchange for the establishment of a $4.9 million fund, reserved for saving historic school buildings in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
In popular culture[edit]
The Ambassador Hotel was a filming location and backdrop for movies and television programs, starting with Jean Harlow's 1933 film Bombshell. An early MGM color short film, Starlit Days at the Lido (1935), was filmed in the Lido Spa at the Ambassador Hotel.[23] In the 1980s and early 2000s, the hotel was filmed in Forrest Gump, Murder, She Wrote, Beverly Hills, 90210, S.W.A.T., The Italian Job, Blow, Mafia!, and much more.[2] It was also used in period films such as Almost Famous, Apollo 13, Catch Me If You Can, Hoffa, and That Thing You Do.[24]
The interactive movie/game based on the 1995 film "Johnny Mnemonic" was filmed here with a $3 million budget.
The last project filmed in the Ambassador Hotel's kitchen was "Spin the Bottle", a 2004 episode of the TV series Angel.[25] The 2006 film Bobby was the last project to film on the hotel property, gaining access in late 2005 to film crucial establishing shots even while portions of the hotel were already in the process of being demolished.[26]
The Ambassador Hotel itself has also been depicted in films. The Cocoanut Grove was recreated in the films The Thirteenth Floor and The Aviator.
The Cocoanut Grove hosted musician Roy Orbison and several performers on September 30, 1987 for the television special Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night, first shown on Cinemax on January 3, 1988. Rock band Linkin Park held their press photo shoot for their 2003 album Meteora at the hotel. Guns N' Roses filmed the music video for their song, "Patience", in the hotel in 1989. R&B singer Chuckii Booker filmed the music video for his song "Games" from the album Niice 'n Wiild at the hotel in 1992. The hotel also served as the filming location for the music video of the 1997 Marilyn Manson single "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" off the soundtrack for the Todd McFarlane motion picture Spawn.[27] Rock band 311 used the lobby of hotel as the backdrop for a photo shoot of the album cover of their 2003 album Evolver.[28] In November 1997, punk-rock band Green Day filmed the music video to the song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" in the hotel.